Music festivals like Coachella present brands with powerful opportunities to engage consumers. These brands, however, must align their values and attributes with those espoused by the music, the musicians, and festivalgoers. Authenticity is critical, especially in regard to experiential marketing.

Music is personal. Music is an important part of our identities that explains our own lives to us and represents the complex simplicity of our souls in cathartic ways. Without music, we’d be the worst kind of animals – we’d be the ravens that haunted Edgar Allen Poe. Without music, we’re Nevermore.

Coachella celebrates music, art, and fashion – the good things in life. It is a cultural phenomenon. Seamlessly integrating into the Coachella experience allows brands to connect with consumers in emotional and memorable ways. Unsurprisingly, fashion brands – known for pushing the frontiers of creativity – naturally dovetail with the Coachella ethos.

Coachella, in fact, strongly influences the fashion aesthetics that define our culture and times. As Factory 360’s founder and CEO, Michael Fernandez, recently explained in the Hollywood Reporter, “Because it’s the first major event of its kind each year, Coachella sets the fashion stage for the other festivals that follow it.”

Yet, he also warns that cultural trends inevitably reach a point of saturation. So the fashion industry’s infatuation with Coachella may eventually wane, as time and people evolve into different versions of themselves. Art, like life, is always on the move.

In a way, fashion is a more personal form of music – an art form that allows us to express our thoughts and views through colors, textures, and styles. As Coachella launches this year’s music festival season, fashion brands and experts in experiential marketing – like Factory 360 – are poised to connect with consumers in thoughtful ways that reflect a shared sensibility and appreciation for the creative life.